The present invention relates generally to manual hand tools and handles. More particularly, this invention pertains to a new and unique detachable door handle to facilitate opening stuck doors of cars, trucks or other vehicles.
Cars, trucks and other vehicles typically include doors for ingress and egress of the driver and any passengers. Such doors usually include, on both the inside and outside, handles for opening and closing as well as locks for latching the doors when closed. The handles and locks take various forms, and sometimes their functions are integrated. Rubber seals or gaskets are generally provided about the periphery, which also act to cushion the doors when they are closed. Such doors are designed to function over numerous operational cycles, and are generally quite reliable.
However, circumstances can arise when such doors cannot readily be opened even when unlocked. For example, during the winter, such doors can become frozen about their peripheries and stuck closed, such as under some conditions of low temperature and high humidity. This can occur after operating the car with warm and humid interior air and then parking it overnight in low temperatures, after which the doors can be quite difficult to open.
Various approaches to this problem have been employed with mixed success Of course, frozen doors can sometimes be yanked open. Forcing a door open by means of its handle can damage or even break the handle. Hot water can be used, but this often makes the problem worse, especially if the outside temperature is very cold. Electric hairdryers are inconvenient and time-consuming. Prying the door open with some kind of garage tool can damage the door and/or the car body.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. Des. 344,665 to Baker shows a tool for prying open frozen automobile doors.
A need has thus arisen for a new and unique detachable car door handle for opening stuck doors of cars, trucks or other vehicles.
The present invention comprises a detachable, auxiliary car door handle that overcomes the foregoing and other difficulties associated with the prior art. In accordance with the invention there is provided an improved hand tool that functions as an auxiliary handle for selective attachment to a car door in two places to minimize or avoid any damage. The detachable handle herein is adapted to be placed on a car door before it is closed and left in place when the car is parked for use later if the door becomes stuck.